UNC-Wilmington Takes Fifth Straight Men’s CAA Title; William and Mary Women Victorious
The Colonial Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championships took place over the weekend in Hampton, Va., with the William and Mary women earning a title while the men of UNC-Wilmington picked up their fifth consecutive conference crown in a much tighter competition. On the women’s side, W&M scored 1647 points to defeat UNCW (1415.5) and Towson (1117.5) while the UNCW men had 852.5 points to surpass Towson (789) and Drexel (667.5).
Women’s Recap
William and Mary captured its first win in the 800 freestyle relay as Ellie Hunt, Flynn Truskett, Haley Lehman and Tess Lankford posted a time of 7:14.30 to top the field by almost three seconds. Two days later, William and Mary went 1-2 in the 100 breaststroke as Lindsay Juhlin took the win in 1:01.11 and Sophia Heilen placed second (1:01.45). Julie Addison followed that up with a win in the 100 backstroke, touching in 53.13.
Addison later added a victory in the 200 back, going 1:56.35, and Heilen also swept the breaststroke events, finishing with a time of 2:11.97 in the 200. William and Mary concluded the meet with a conference record in the 400 free relay. The team of Truskett, Hunt, Lehman and Caroline Burgeson combined to swim a time of 3:17.39, obliterating the previous conference record of 3:18.95 by more than 1.5 seconds.
UNC-Wilmington’s women topped the opening event of the meet as Maeren McGonigal, Gil Shaw, Cameron Snowden and Alex Tysinger posted a time of 1:37.83 for the win in the 200 medley relay. That crushed the conference and meet record of 1:38.48 set by William and Mary last season, and the runnerup W&M team also beat the old mark by one hundredth.
Shaw was the winner of the 200 IM, finishing in 2:00.84 to hold off Lankford (2:00.95) by a tenth. One race later, Snowden dominated the 50 free in 22.39. The team of McGonigal, Shaw, Snowden and Tysinger returned to capture the 400 medley relay in 3:35.53, holding off W&M by less than three tenths.
Snowden claimed victory in the 100 butterfly in 52.06, securing qualification to the NCAA Championships as a conference champion eclipsing the automatic qualifying time of 52.52. Snowden would earn a third individual victor in the 100 free in a time of 48.80. Teammate Olivia Corbi placed first in the 400 IM in 4:17.58.
Drexel’s Brittany Corbett held off the field to capture first place in the 500 free by a half-second, posting a final time of 4:47.79. Later in the meet, Corbett captured first in the 1650 free by more than four seconds in 16:39.96, with teammate Harper Barrowman taking second (16:44.26). Her teammates Mariana Alencar, Delaney Leonard, Clare Schwartz and Megan Ehrnfeldt placed first in the 200 free relay in 1:30.56.
Towson’s Shannon Parrau won 3-meter diving (295.85) as well as 1-meter (280.45), and teammate Addie Scott came through for first in the 200 free in 1:47.47. Northeastern scored a win in the last individual swimming event at Mary Nordmann clocked 2:00.29 for first in the 200 fly.
Men’s Recap
The UNC-Wilmington men took first in the 800 free relay to kick off their championship campaign. The team of Nathan Jao, William Carrico, Will Spencer and Jack Haywood finished in 6:24.66 to win by less than a second over Towson (6:25.37).
Carrico had his team’s first individual win in the 200 IM, clocking 1:42.09 to smash the conference record of 1:42.82 posted by former Towson star Brian Benzing in 2024. Moreover, Carrico qualified for the NCAA Championships by swimming well under the automatic qualifying time for conference winners (1:42.09). Carrico repeated the feat in the 400 IM, clocking 3:42.15 to obliterate his own conference and meet record of 3:44.81 while also surpassing the NCAA required time by six seconds. Carrico would also place second in the 200 breast, adding another event for NCAAs with his time of 1:53.14.
UNCW’s Ethan Badrian led the way in 3-meter diving (347.40), and Joseph Busic topped the 200 fly in 1:43.52, becoming another NCAA qualifier for his team.
Drexel topped the 200 medley relay by eight hundredths over UNCW, with the team of Theo Andreopoulous, Mark Eszes, Sebastian Smith and Declan Egger posting a time of 1:25.82. The next day, Andreopoulous won the 50 free by one hundredth, beating W&M’s Aiden Bond 19.60 to 19.61, with Smith a further hundredth behind (19.62). Drexel also posted the 400 medley relay win in 3:08.14 with Dimi Gkelis, Bart Loter, Smith and Andreopolous.
Smith won the 100 fly in 45.62, making the mark for NCAAs while falling only three hundredths off his own meet record. Smith doubled up with a top finish in the 100 free (42.85). Andreopoulos picked up his second win in the 100 back, touching in 46.83. Andreopolous would book his own ticket to the NCAA meet with a 200 backstroke win in 1:42.00, just 0.14 under the qualifying time. Andreopoulous, Smith, Egger and Petar Pavalic captured the 200 free relay win in 1:18.17, and the team of Andreopolous, Matas Cinga, Pavalic and Smith won the 400 free relay as well, going 2:25.00 for a new CAA record.
In 1-meter diving, Towson’s Sam Tennell took the win with 3919.55 points. His teammate Chris Davidson paced the 500 free by two seconds in 4:21.03, with teammate Stephen McDonald making it a 1-2 finish. Davidson pulled off a double in the 1650 free, finishing in 15:08.00 to win by more than 11 seconds.
Jed Garner became an NCAA qualifier for Towson in the 100 breast, winning in 52.12 to beat the qualifying time by almost a half-second. Garner returned to set a new conference record in the 200 breast, swimming a time of 1:52.45 to beat Benzing’s previous record of 1:52.71. Garner also qualified for the NCAA meet in that event.
William and Mary’s Bond placed first by almost a second in the 200 free in 1:35.03.
